A small group in Pearland, Texas gathered on Saturday at the Houston Memorial Gardens to symbolically lay to rest the "N-word."

"I would like for you to take note of the casket," said organizer Tammie Campbell to the crowd gathered for the mock funeral. "The first documented use [of the N-word] was 1786, which we lay to rest today, 7-7-7."

A movement to outlaw the use of the word is spreading, reports CNN. In January of this year, another small Texas town banned the word, and in March the New York City council voted unanimously to symbolically outlaw it.

"We want positive affirmations from everyone," Robbie Evans of the University of Houston told the crowd on Saturday, "that the N-word dies with all of this."